Shane Lowry: I’m proud of how I played but you only remember the tournaments you win

Naturally disappointed but happy and proud about how I played is probably a good summation of how I’m feeling at the moment. I really feel like it’s one that got away. I feel like I had it for the taking but it was just tricky down the stretch and it’s just hard to get the job done when you’ve so many guys coming at you. C.T. Pan was probably the last guy you would’ve picked to come through.

I made two bad mistakes yesterday but other than that I feel like I played great all day. I’m disappointed but overall, happy with the result.

Tough Track

The course did play tough. It was a lot firmer on the final day and a little bit faster. The wind wasn’t as strong as it had been but it was still strong enough. It is a tough tricky golf course though. They’re small greens as well so it’s hard to hit them and if you don’t quite have your game it’s easy to make bogeys.

If you looked at the scoreboard early on there was a load of guys within two or three shots of the lead and then lads start to dwindle away. I only noticed that around the middle of the back nine where Dustin (Johnson) and Poulter (Ian) were gone and there was only maybe a couple of lads that could’ve won it from there.

Putting Solidly

I got a new putter last week and I just liked it and I felt I putted quite well all tournament. Obviously, the one on the ninth hole was just a serious lapse of concentration. That one was a bit of a killer, yet I still thought I was fine and in a good position heading into the back nine. Overall throughout the week I did putt quite well and holed some nice putts; a couple of long ones as well. Even the one on the 14th after making double bogey on the 12th it was nice to hold that one to give myself a chance with a few holes to go.

Mentally Overcoming Bad Holes

Some weeks it’s better than others. Last week mentally I was in a good place and any time I hit a bad shot or ended up in a bad position I snapped out of it fairly quickly. I just seemed to be mentally very switched on. When I’m playing a difficult golf course I find it easier to take the rough with the smooth.

Relaxed, Composed and Comfortable

It’s funny, I felt so relaxed and comfortable all week. After the Masters, I wasn’t really pushed on playing last week and I kind of said it was a nice place to go with Wendy and Irish and we’d go down and have a bit of a holiday and play a bit of golf and see what happens. Maybe that’s the way to approach it for me.

It was a bit more relaxed and less trying to force it to do well, whereas the week before you’re putting in extra practice and you feel like you’re doing everything right to try and perform your best. At the RBC, it was a bit more relaxed and a bit easier to get into just playing freely and not worrying, like in Augusta, about making mistakes. It’s something that I can learn from as well and use in the future.

Leader board Looker

I’m someone who does look at them. I look at the leader boards all the time, wherever they are on the course. It’s funny, there wasn’t that many of them on the course last week and I didn’t really know where I stood playing the 17th and then I heard bad groans from the 18th and I was sure that C.T. Pan was after bogeying the last so I thought if I birdied 17 or 18 I’d get into a playoff but then when I walked off the 18th I saw he was on 12 under so I knew I was done then.

I didn’t even know I had to hole my second shot on the 18th but sure I was trying to hit the flag and make birdie anyway so it made no difference.

Upward Trend

Abu Dhabi isn’t that long ago but it is quite a while at the same time in golfing terms as it’s eight tournaments ago. In the first nine tournaments of the year, I’ve won one and I’ve given myself a great chance and finished third in another one. Yea, I’ve missed a few cuts and haven’t done that well but I think if someone was to tell me that at the start of the year I probably would’ve taken it.

That performance was my best so far on the PGA Tour this year so I have to be happy with that.

I always say you’d nearly rather missed cuts and have a really good week rather than make every cut and have average weeks. It’s a funny game like that, golf. If you throw a really good week in now and then it’s a lot better than playing consistently rather than finishing 15th every week. You’ll never remember the tournament you finished 12th in and in a few years, I won’t even remember finishing third there in the RBC. You can only really remember the tournaments you win. You’re better off being a bit more inconsistent but when you’re on, you’re on.